No Clover allowed on Golfer's turf

It's a case of marsupial West Side Story except instead of the Jets and the Sharks, it's the Koalas and...well...the Koalas.

Candelo Cool
From koalawrangler's gallery.

Brrr! It's a chilly old morning here in Koalaville. All the koalawranglers arrived rugged up in long trousers, fleecy tops and scarves. Even Cheyne has forgone her customary shorts for more winter-friendly attire. It's times like these you've got to envy those among us with built-in fur coats.

I see that the koala money boxes are still stacked on the dayroom table so busy myself with scattering them around the yards. On my way through yard 9, Bonny is up her usual tree while Birthday Girl looks at me beseechingly for her tucker. Wiruna Lucky hasn't been playing nicely with the other girls, so they've given her a yard to herself--9a, the former joey lovenest. She's perched up in the tree and illuminated by yellow morning light. She looks enormous in the yard that has been joey territory for so long. Ocean Kim has recently joined Lake Christmas in the traditional joey yard (yard 6).


Wiruna Lucky
From koalawrangler's gallery.
Amanda is still reading leaf in yard 5. She returns to the dayroom after her rounds and begins allocating yards. Kerstin's up in yard 10 where only Candelo Cool and Tractive Golfer reside; Brooke's in yard 9, Paul's in yards 5 and 6 and I'm in 3 and 4. Jarrod is helping Geoff with some maintenance work in ICU. The walls in ICU have all received a fresh lick of paint. The bright eggshell blue is quite a change after the previously dour grey.

Jackie is tending to her two charges in ICU: Sandhill Col, a koala brought in with Chlamydia in both eyes. When he turns from yesterday's leaf, he peers out at me through eyes that are angry red. He's slated for surgery tomorrow, so we'll see how he fares. Another inmate is Cattlebrook John. I remember his name. He was brought in back in February with symptoms of lethargy. I remember Barb conjecturing at the time that he might have been hit by a car. He spent a few days in ICU and things didn't look too hopeful. Then, miraculously, he seemed to perk up and was released. It's thought that a motor vehicle accident is to blame for his admission this time as well. He appears to be concussed, but he also has an infection which we're waiting on bloods to confirm.

Cattlebrook John
From koalawrangler's gallery.

I've got Anna Bay Sooty and Livingstone Clover to look after out in the yards. Neither gets any formula, so it's straight onto poop and leaf detail. I start on Clover who's currently up the tree in yard 4. I attended the hospital's 3pm walk-and-talk on Sunday, so was able to catch up on a little bit of history about Clover from Barb.

Clover was brought in suffering from a gammy knee and after his initial stint in ICU was moved to the circular yard in yard 10. You'd think that and old man like Tractive Golfer who suffers from a few mobility problems himself would be sympathetic to the likes of poor old Clover. But no. Golfer has the run of the place in yard 10 and is generally not too bothered when other koalas are assigned to the smaller yards adjacent to his. He also tends to ignore it when koalas are placed in the circular yard within yard 10. That is, as long as they are FEMALE koalas. Golfer was none too pleased about the presence of Clover. Males koalas can be quite bullish about their home range and like to be king of their little stretch of "jungle".

Golfer even decided he wanted to explain the home-range rules to Clover in person: one morning the handlers found Golfer IN Clover's yard. Despite suffering from rather pronounced spinal curvature (thanks to his scoliosis), Golfer managed to scale the metal fence into Clover's yard and was giving him a bit of a hard time about being the new kid on the block in Golfer's turf. It's a case of marsupial West Side Story except instead of the Jets and the Sharks, it's the Koalas and...well...the Koalas.

The powers that be decided the best for Clover's recuperation would be to get him off Golfer's radar. Despite shipping Clover out, Golfer still broke his way into Clover's old yard this morning. Amanda found him in there wandering about, no doubt ensuring there were no more interlopers.

So Clover's yard's an easy one to clean, with Clover sleeping peacefully on high. Amanda asks me to look after Kempsey too. She's pacing up and down her gunyah wanting her formula, so I duck into the dayroom to get her food. Feeding her draws a crowd of interested visitors. I lure her down the visitor-friendly end with the smell of formula. She laps it up in her methodically dribbly way.


Kempsey Carolina
From koalawrangler's gallery.
I carry on and prepare her leaf. Kempsey's hungry today. I put her full pots in place and Kempsey weaves in and out of the branches looking for the choicest leaf. She starts backing her way down the gunyah until it looks like she's going to slip of the end. I put my cupped hands gently around her white bottom just as she taks a step too far... She works it out though and changes out of reverse gear. For a blind koala, she's pretty savvy.


Anna Bay Sooty
From koalawrangler's gallery.
Kerstin's finished in yard 10 and comes in to see if she can help out. I've cleaned Clover's yard; all the remains is to replenish his fresh leaf which she's happy to do. I continue on with Anna Bay Sooty who's been asleep all morning. I notice a large brown patch on her hind quarters. I wonder if it's a bit of joey poking out of her pouch? I catch Cheyne in the yard and she suggests it could be "her pap coming through". Pap is a type of koala poo that the mother produces for the baby koala to eat, much like colostrum in humans. It contains all the right ingredients for preparing the joey's gut for its impending eucalyptus diet.

We go into Sooty's yard to inspect more closely, but it turns out to be nothing more than a brown patch of fur that I hadn't noticed before. Cheyne says it's characteristic of darker-furred koalas to have such patches. They also tend to have brown claws; they go hand in hand, a bit like brown hair/brown eyes in humans.

Well, it may not have been a sign of the forthcoming joey, but Sooty's pouch has certainly grown hefty in the last few weeks. As I move her leaf pots around and she moves to accommodate them, I can see the hanging roundness of her belly. It's a shame, but we won't get to see Sooty's little one. Sooty's ready to be released in the next week or two, and that's not to be delayed by a certain koalawrangler's desire to see a freshly hatched joey in the flesh.

There are some serious mating-style noises emanating from ICU. The maintenance team are in there tinkering down the sink end of the corridor. Every once in a while Cattlebrook John lets loose with their unique growling sound, a koala-style foghorn.

In the dayroom, I flick through the daybook and see there's been a few comings and goings. Emerald Oz was briefly admitted and then released, having been reported on a fence with barking bull terriers. Hassall Coal was also on a fence, this time in a yard with two Staffordshire terriors. She was relocated to a safer area. There was also Airport Keena, a juvenile found up in the rafters of a freight hanger at the airport who was also relocated.

Click here to view more of today's koala hospital snaps.

Goodbye Macquarie Peter!

In the fork of the branch where he perpetually sat, I see that he has left me a little present: three little pellets of koala poop nestle there. I'm momentarily taken back to easter egg hunts as a child...

Warrego Martin
From koalawrangler's gallery.

Today I'm allocated to yard 10 with Barb and a friend called Colleen she's training up. There seem to be quite a few people on today: Geoff, Peter, Mary, Anne, Judy, Barb, Danae and now Colleen. But there are about 30 koalas in the hospital at the moment, so we need every pair of hands.

We set out via the leaf shed to collect the leaf cutters although the leaf gatherer's nowhere to be seen yet. All the koalas look a bit soggy after last night's rain. They're fur is wet and stringy in places instead of the usual all-over fluffiness. Ocean Therese and Tractive Golfer are up their respective trees; the koalas that encircle yard 10 are waking up with the promise of fresh leaf.

Barb and Colleen start on Therese's yard, completely stripping her pots of leaf since she is at the highest point of her tree. I start down at Links Lorna's yard. Predictably she eeps when I enter, although I give her plenty of space. I rake up her poop, refill her water and clean out one pot of leaf and water. I stay away from her where possible; I don't want to upset her any more than my mere presence here already does.

Tozer Tom
From koalawrangler's gallery.

I do the same for Tozer Tom, Warrego Martin, Macquarie Peter and Oxley Jo. Tozer Tom is awake and enjoying some of yesterday's leaf. Although I'm standing right in front of him taking photos, he's munching away like I don't even exist: he's gone to the leaf zone.

Warrego Martin starts climbing up his umbrella. Gunyahs often have a forked branch that bisects the horizontal beam vertically; it's another place for the koala to climb up and down from the ground, and they like to sit wedged in the fork. The vertical beam on this gunyah is quite high, allowing Martin to climb up to the spokes at the underside of the umbrella. He sits up there in a squatting position looking around the yard. I think he's calculating whether he can leap across to the tree beside him; it's covered in a metal casing to about the height of the umbrella to prevent his climbing it.

Today's leaf man gives the all-clear that we can start taking the leaf he's laid out in bundles. Barb and Colleen stock up Ocean Therese and Oxley Jo. When they moved Jo into this yard, she gave Barb quite a scratching; but now she lets Barb chuck her under the chin like they are old friends.

Barb & Oxley Jo making up
From koalawrangler's gallery.

Martin might be up, but Therese is making her way down for breakfast. Barb and Colleen feed her and then, since the fresh leaf isn't ready, they take her off to ICU to be weighed. There's talk of Therese being relocated to a wildlife park in Gosford. They want her work on strengthening her leg muscles for climbing; they were damaged in the motor vehicle accident that brought her to the hospital with her joey, Ocean Kim. There's also suspected brain damage, which is why they don't want to return her to the wild: it's unlikely she would survive there.

She's such a complacent koala; I suggest to Barb she could probably carry Therese out to the treatment room in her arms. Understandably though Barb doesn't want to risk it after the slice-and-dice affair with Oxley Jo last weekend. When they return however, that's just where Therese is: snuggled in Barb's arms like an overgrown joey.

Ocean Therese From koalawrangler's gallery.

Ocean Therese with Barb From koalawrangler's gallery.

Barb tells me that Orr Palmerston, one of Sunday's admissions, was released yesterday. Cattlebrook John, the koala brought in with lethargy, is being released soon. Barb's theory is that he was probably hit by a car and his lethargy was due to shock. At first, Barb wasn't hopeful for him, but he appears to have bounced back greatly and will be released today.

I also learn that Macquarie Peter is being set free! It's a bittersweet feeling; I'm glad he's well enough to leave us. A majestic koala like Peter deserves to be climbing trees out in the bush, not stuck on a forked branch on a makeshift gunyah. Naturally, I will miss him though: he was the first koala I "bagged" and brought from ICU to the aviaries and then cared for him out here in the yards. After I finish replenishing the other yards with leaf, I do a final clean out of his yard. His water bowl is emptied, scrubbed and turned upright atop a pot-holder. The remaining leaf is thrown out and those pots scrubbed and reversed too. In the fork of the branch where he perpetually sat, I see that he has left me a little present: three little pellets of koala poop nestle there. I'm momentarily taken back to easter egg hunts as a child...

Andrea comes out to give the koalas their medication. I ask her about Oxley Jo whose wet bottom still looks quite 'angry' to me. Andrea says it would be better for her to be in an inside unit where they could keep a better watch on her, but given the space restraints, she needs to be out here. She's responding okay. There's a misconception that she's not eating much leaf; she's only a small koala and therefore isn't going to be putting away the eucalyptus of an 8kg male.

I tell her about how changeable Ellenborough Nancy was when I tended to her last week. On Thursday, she was at my throat; on Friday, she sat meekly on her gunyah without a peep. Andrea said her behaviour can be dicated by her oestrous cycle, basically the koala time of the month. How interesting koalas are!

Click here to view more of today's koala hospital photos.

Setting a koala trap

Just then Barb announces that three new koalas are being brought in: one motor vehicle accident and two wet bottoms. She asks me to set up three new units in ICU, which fills ICU to capacity.

Koala trap
From koalawrangler's gallery.

It's the Sunday shift and I'm assiged the aviaries...that is until Peter realises I've done the aviaries two shifts running and might just be suffering aviary burnout. He gives me yard 10 instead. I head off there and am shortly joined by Beatrice, a volunteer I haven't met before. I recognise her name though. She's the one who witnessed the Bellevue Bill making his way into Links Lorna's boudoir one evening. Bill, by the way, had been re-released to a smaller yard in yard 10. He promptly knocked over his umbrella, scaled the wall and headed north up the nearest tree in the main part of yard 10. Currently, he and Tractive Golfer are up adjacent trees. The umbrellas are designed for shelter, but some koalas have other plans for them. It's a matter of determining which koalas will use them for the former and which for the latter.

Beatrice and I carry on in yard 10. We had to wait until one of the vets came to check the leaf and poop and take poop samples, so we start on the non-research koalas: Ocean Therese and Tractive Golfer. Both are high up their respective trees so neither can be fed yet. I'm sorting out Golfer's recycle and Beatrice is on Therese's leaf. We split the remaining sub-yards between us: I've got Macquarie Peter and Warrego Martin, my two favourite boys; while Beatrice has Links Lorna and Tozer Tom. We finish here quickly, which is good, since Beatrice has to go out on a rescue. One of the smaller yards in yard 10 has to be set up for Oxley Jo to move into; Jim says he'll look after that.

Warrego Martin
From koalawrangler's gallery.

I head into ICU where Ian is still working on the time-consuming wet-bottom side. I see that Oxley Westi's unit still needs to be cleaned so I set about doing that. Just then Barb announces that three new koalas are being brought in: one motor vehicle accident and two wet bottoms. She asks me to set up three new units in ICU, which fills ICU to capacity.

There is already a koala in the ICU treatment room, sealed in a rescue basket. I get moving cutting new leaf, filling water bowls and dirt containers, laying newspaper. They bring in the motor vehicle accident victim, Melaleuca Alfie. He is an amazingly calm koala. He sits on the treatment table without a bag or any kind of restraint, sipping the fluid Peter syringes into his mouth. When I enter the room to take a photo, he turns his head and follows me with his eyes. What an adorable, trusting fellow. It turns that his genitals were injured in the car accident. He may have trouble urinating.

Melaleuca Alfie
From koalawrangler's gallery.

I'm finishing the new units when I see another koala in the treatment room. This one is named Cattlebrook John. He was found sitting on the ground, listless and unmoving. It's not certain what has caused his lethargy. He's still nestled in his rescue basket, sort of lounging back into it. When Andrea tries to examine him closer, he ducks out from under her. He doesn't want to move but he doesn't want to be touched either. When they put him in his unit, the leaf pots are moved to the floor and he stays in the basket.

I run into Lorna in the dayroom. She hands me my name badge which was on order and has now arrived. Now I'm official and the koalas will be able to call me by name :)

Click here to view more of today's koala hospital photos.